What Went Wrong with "history from Below": Reinstating Human Agency as Human CreativityPrés. de l'éd.: "While refuting contemporary fashionable discourse on 'History from below', which is based on cultural determinism, the author of the present volume urges scholars to use their own innate creativity (as human agency) collectively to build an alternative theoretical framework that can open up the possibility of creating an alternative state of being and alternative kinds of societies. While suggesting one of many possible alternatives, the author has attempted to reinstate in the present volume the notion of 'human agency' as human being's innate capacity for creativity, which is closely related to the concept of 'humaneness'. Author believes that such interpretation will open up the possibility of developing a new theoretical framework that will be devoid of binaries such as, traditional/modern, core/periphery, progressive/backward, national/global. Based on these ideas, the present volume is an attempt to show one of many possibilities of writing a history of the world from an alternative perspective derived from the experiences of the social formations, cultural formations and class struggles in India. The focus on "India" is important (not merely as a local history, or colonial history) because it represents the historical experiences of one billion plus people with all possible historical, political, economic, and cultural scenarios and its interactions with many other societies over time. Author hopes that suggestions hypothesized in this volume might help in writing histories -- everywhere -- of women, working people, oppressed people, oppressed societies, as well as of oppressive societies from the vantage point of their own societies and their interactions with other societies without using binary terms. Such history writing will allow oppressed people and oppressed societies to break away from the prevailing notion of 'inevitable fate' about their present miserable condition and hopeless future choices, as they are made to believe about the inevitability of 'globalization', about the so called 'development', and their consequences." |
Contents
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH HISTORY FROM BELOW | 2 |
CHAPTER | 31 |
Class Consciousness and Primordial Values in the Shaping | 124 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
AFASALA Africa American Britain British capital capitalist caste century Chakrabarty choices class consciousness clothes colonial context countries created culture dalit Dhrupad Dhruvapad dress Economic and Political elite emancipation emergence ethnic Eurocentrism example experience explain feminist gender global Hindu historians historical forces human creativity Ibid idea identity imperialism important Indian National Congress Indian women interaction iron and steel issue labour language lives Marxist means meta-narrative modern nationalist Naxalites NGOs oppressed people's Political Weekly possible postmodernist problem production promoting question reality regional relations relationship role Rowbotham salwar kameez sari sati scholars similar social formation society status steel industry structure struggle styles Subaltern Studies Subalternists subjectivity suggested Tata Tata steel theory Third World tion TISCO Today trade tradition understand various wear Western Williamsport Sun Gazette women's movements workers World Bank writing